I'm not so sure I understand why it would be any worse? Heck if anything it seems like it might be a little better. In a big box building you can't rescue someone trapped in the "middle" of the building by propping a ladder up to a window. In this thing it looks like a number of "Middle" apartments have window access.

They actually all do, in fact they all have a private terrace as well. The design goal was to make urban housing more like suburban housing, but it ended up costing a lot more than they expected (~$140k per unit). I love the design and idea behind it, I hope it inspires similar designs elsewhere.